Media Planning & Evaluation Officer

London - 100 Parliament Street, Westminster, London, SW1A 2BQ

Job Summary
Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you're seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it’s really like to work at HMRC.

Do you have experience planning complex communications at a high level?

If so, continue reading to find out more about this fantastic opportunity to join HMRC’s Press Office.

Our Press Office runs one of the most high-profile 24-hour news operations in government, dealing with subjects from Self Assessment to Inheritance Tax, and tax avoidance and offshore evasion to Child Benefit.

We are responsible for liaising with journalists from all media outlets on both a pro-active and reactive basis, ensuring that inaccurate information is rebutted and that we represent HMRC policies and activity clearly and accurately.

With a proactive approach to media and stakeholder engagement, we are breaking new ground in digital and social media news management, directly influencing the daily lives of every UK citizen.

Job Description
This role gives you the opportunity to work at the heart of government by liaising closely with colleagues at No10 and HM Treasury to plan announcements and activity that affects the whole of the UK and beyond.

The successful candidate will be responsible for working with colleagues across our communications directorate, the wider department and other government departments to ensure that HMRC weekly and longer term planning returns to No10 are accurate, up to date and completed on time. Through this influential role, you will help shape the government’s news agenda.

Amongst other things you will also be required to work on products that evaluate and showcase the work of the Press, Digital and External Affairs team, demonstrating the added value our low cost/no cost activity produces.

We’re looking for someone who is experienced in planning often complex announcements and communications packages, is skilled in producing easily understood documentation to support plans and evaluation and can turn things around very quickly.

Job holders in this grade will carry out a range of activities across communications professional disciplines to support efficient running of the directorate. This may involve being deployed to support emerging priority work.

We provide a 24/7/365 service to the media running an on call service outside of normal working hours, which are 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday. All colleagues at Higher Officer grade and above joining the press office team will be part of the on call rota.

Responsibilities

• Manage the press and digital communications team planning and gridding process, providing advice on the timing of HMRC announcements and publications, to internal colleagues, anticipating issues before they occur.
• Work closely with No10 and other government departments to coordinate and agree planned external communications in line with departmental priorities.
• Attend weekly grid meetings at No10 and regular HM Treasury grid meetings.
• Arrange and chair the weekly Press, Digital and External Affairs team planning meeting.
• Maintain a long term forward look for press, digital and external affairs communications activity.
• Produce weekly Forward Look and Hot Topics notes to be shared with senior officials across HMRC.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with appropriate stakeholders and HMRC and OGD officials to enable accurate, appropriate and timely delivery of HMRC key messages.
• Working with colleagues, oversee the press office evaluation system and produce regular reports covering the work of the Press, Digital and External Affairs team.
• Monitor and action Freedom of Information requests coming to the team.
• Supporting, colleagues across the Press, Digital and External Affairs team and the wider communications team to ensure delivery of priority work.
• Management of two support officers.

Essential Criteria

• Proven track record of working in a professional communication role such as a press officer, media planner, journalist, communications officer etc.
• Experience of delivering clear, accurate and effective planning products.
• Excellent written skills with the ability to take complex policy information and explain it to non-expert audiences in a straightforward way.
• Experience of working collaboratively across teams and with external stakeholders.
• Ability to work in a fast paced, demanding and unpredictable environment with the ability to prioritise work.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the confidence to push back on senior colleagues’ decisions or ideas should it be necessary.
• Membership of GCS or willing to join as part of the role.

Behaviours

• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together

Technical skills

• Technical questions relating to the Government Communication Service (GCS) technical skills
• GCS Insight – press & media
• Impact – press & media

Alongside your salary of £41,289, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £11,961 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.

We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.

• Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues’ Alpha pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary.
• Family friendly policies.
• Personal support.
• Coaching and development.

How To Apply
As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide the following:

• A name-blind CV including your job history and previous experiences.
• A 750-word personal statement. Your Personal statement should explain how you meet the essential criteria and key responsibilities of the role. This is your opportunity to demonstrate that you can do the job, so it’s vital that you clearly demonstrate in your statement how you can do the things listed, using examples where you can.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
Interview
Candidates will be required to complete a written exercise which will be provided on the day – no preparation is necessary.

During the panel interview, you will be assessed on the Civil Service behaviours Delivering at Pace and Working Together and GCS technical skills relating to Insight – press and media, and Impact – press and media. Please follow this link for further information of what is required Competency Framework - technical specifications - GCS.

Interviews will take place face to face at 100 Parliament Street, Westminster, London, SW1A 2BQ.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
Eligibility
Please take extra care to tick the correct boxes in the eligibility sections of your application form. We understand mistakes sometimes happen but if you contact us later than two working days (Monday-Friday) before the vacancy closes, we will not be able to reopen your application for you. If you do make a mistake with your eligibility form, please contact us via: unitybusinessservicesrecruitmentresults@hmrc.gov.uk.
Reserve List
A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles – if this applies to you, we’ll let you know via your Civil Service Jobs account.